0 back. it's my way of saying i see you, i appreciate you, and i thank you. i'm not comfortable just walking past and ignoring them. of course, usually they are male troopers. in this case, i don't remember doing it at all. i didn't do it consciously with the female trooper. i did not mean any sexual connotation. i did not mean any intimacy by it. i just wasn't thinking. it was totally thoughtless in the literal sense of the word, but it was also insensitive. it was embarrassing to her and it was disrespectful. it was a mistake, plain and simple. i have no other words to explain it. i want to personally apologize to her and her family. i have the greatest respect for her and for the new york state police. now, obviously in a highly political matter like this, there are many agendas and there are many motivations at play. if anyone thought otherwise, they would be naive and new yorkers are not naive. but i want to thank the women who came forward with sincere complaints. it is not easy to step forward, but you did an important service, and you taught me, and you taught others an important lesson. personal boundaries must be expanded and must be protected. i accept full responsibility. part of being new york tough is being new york smart. new york smart tells us that this situation and moment are not about the facts. it's not about the truth. it's not about thoughtful analysis. it's not about how do we make the system better. this is about politics. and our political system today is too often driven by the extremes. rashness has replaced reasonableness. loudness has replaced soundness. twitter has become the public square for policy debate. there is an intelligent discussion to be had on gender-based actions, on generational and cultural behavioral differences, on setting higher standards and finding reasonable resolution, but the political environment is too hot and it is too reactionary for that now, and it is unfortunate. now you know me, i'm a new yorker born and bred. i am a fighter, and my instinct is to fight through this controversy because i truly believe little politically motivated. i believe that it is unfair and it is untruthful, and i believe it -- it demonizes behavior that is unsustainable for society. if i could communicate the facts through the frenzy, new yorkers would understand. i believe that, but when i took my oath as governor then it changed. i became a fighter, but i became a fighter for you, and it is your best interest that i must serve. this situation by its current trajectory will generate months of political and legal controversy. that is what is going to happen. that is how the political wind is blowing. it will consume government. it will cost taxpayers millions of dollars. it will brutalize people. the state assembly outlined weeks of process that will then lead to months of litigation. time and money that government should spend managing covid, guarding against a delta variant, re-opening state and fighting gun violence and saving new york city. all that time would be wasted. this is one of the most challenging times for government in a generation. government really needs to function today. government needs to perform. it is a matter of life and death government operations and wasting energy on distractions is the last thing that state government should be doing, and i cannot be the cause of that. new york tough means new york loving, and i love new york, and i love you, and everything i have ever done has been motivated by that love, and i would never want to be unhelpful in any way. and i think given the circumstances the best way i can help now is if i let step aside and let government get back to governing and therefore that's what i'll do because i work for you, and doing the right thing is doing the right thing for you. because as we say it's not about me. it's about we. kathy hokel, my lieutenant governor is smart and competent. this transition must be seamless. we have a lot going on. i'm very worried about the delta variant and so should you be, but she can come up to speed quickly and my resignation will be effective in 14 days. to my team, melissa de rosa, robert mejica, stephanie benton, richard, rick cotton, jack davies and the hundreds of dedicated administration officials, i want to say this, thank you. thank you and be proud. we made new york state the progressive capital of the nation nobody accomplished more to help people and that is what it's all about. just think about what we did. we passed marriage equality, creating a new civil right, legalized love for the lgbtq community and we generated a force for change that swept the nation. we passed the safe act years ago. the smartest gun safety law in the united states of america and it banned the madness of assault weapons. we've saved countless lives with that law. $15 minimum wage, the highest in the nation, lifting millions of families' standard of living putting more food on their tables and clothes on their backs and we lead the nation in economic just wiss justice with that retomorrow. we have managed every emergency mother nature could throw at us, fire, floods, hurricane, super storms and pandemics. we balanced the state budget and got it done on time, more than any other administration because government should work and perform. free college tuition for struggling families. nobody in this state will be denied their college dream because of their income. we have built new airport, rail, transit, roads all across this state faster and better than ever before, and more than any state in the nation, the most effective green economy program in the nation. we did more for black and latino families than any other administration. we did more for working families. we did more for our union brothers and sisters. we did more to battle racism and antisemitism. today so much of the politics is just noise. just static and that's why people tune it out. what matters is actually improving people's lives and that's what you did. you made this state a better state for the generations that follow and that is undeniable, unusualable and true even in these ugly, crazy times. i thank speaker carl hasty and andrea stewart cousins for their leadership, and let me say this on a personal note, in many ways i see the world through the eyes of my daughters, kaya, mariah and micaela. they are 26, 26, twins and 23. i have lived this experience with and through them. i have sat on the couch with them hearing the ugly accusations for weeks. i have seen the look in their eyes and the expression on their faces, and it hurt. i want my three jewels to know this, my greatest goal is for them to have a better future than the generations of women before them. it is still, in many way, a man's world. it always has been. we have sexism that is culturalized and institutionalized. my daughters have more talent and natural gifts than i ever had. i want to make sure that society allows them to fly as high as their wings will carry them. there should be no assumptions, no stereotypes, no limitations. i want them to know from the bottom of my heart that i never did and i never would intentionally disrespect a woman or treat any woman differently than i would want them treated, and that is the god's honest truth. your dad made mistakes, and he apologized and he learned from it, and that's what life is all about. and i know the political process is flawed, and i understand there's cynicism and distrust and disappointment now, but don't give it up because government is still the best vehicle for making positive, social change. lastly, i want to remind all new yorkers of an important lesson, and one that i will carry with me for the rest of my life and that's what you new yorkers did in battling covid. the enemy landed in new york state. covid launched the attack here. it came on planes from europe and we had no idea. it was an ambush, and it was up to new yorkers to fight back. we were on our own, and it was war. nurses, doctors, essential workers became our frontline heroes. hospitals became the battlegrounds. streets were still and sirens filled the city's silence. trailers carried the bodies of our fallen brothers and sisters, but you refused to give up, and you fought back and you won going from the highest infection rate in the nation to one of the lowest. no one thought we could do it, but you did it. you led the nation, and you showed the way forward and how you did it is what's most important. you did it together. not as black new yorkers or white new yorkers, not as lgbtq new yorkers or straight new yorkers or democrats or republicans or downstate or upstate or muslim, protestant or catholic new yorkers, but as one community, one family, the family of new york. you overcame the naysayers and the haters and the fear and the division and you unified and you rose and you overcame and you saved lives, and that was powerful in its effect. it was beautiful to see, and it was an honor to lead. please remember that lesson. hold it dear, and hold it up high for this nation to see because it is new york state at her finest, creating her legacy, fulfilling her destiny, giving life and animation to the lady in the harbor saying excelsior. we can be better, we can reach higher and proclaiming e pluribus unum. out of many, one, unity, community, love. that is our founding premise and our enduring promise, and that is the salvation of this nation that it so desperately needs to hear. thank you for the honor of serving you. it has been the honor of my lifetime. god bless you. good day, this is "andrea mitchell reports" in washington with breaking news out of new york. the embattled governor andrew cuomo announcing his resignation effective in 14 days. the lieutenant governor kathy hochul stepping in. cuomo saying he will step aside preventing further distraction from the state, this after slamming the state attorney general's report as false saying the report is filled with bias against him while apologizing to the 11 women accusing him of harassment saying he slipped with some of his comments toward them and adding that his actions toward a female state trooper were thoughtless and insensitive. joining us now, ron allen in manhattan. tom winter at 30 rock. msnbc legal analyst barbara mcquade, former u.s. attorney general, and susan del percio who also served as special adviser to governor cuomo. >> ron allen, susan del percio, tom winter, let me start with you about the accusations and the way he tried to re-cast them today. let's fact check him and his attorney who preceded him before we get into the politics of it. >> sure, andrea. a couple of things. this is the first time we heard the governor address specifically the allegations made against him in that independent report released by the attorney general's office as it pertained to trooper number 1. this is a member of his protective detail who she says was the subject of, rather, sexual harassment and claims in statements made by the governor about her attire and about her dress and about the idea that she was going to be married and that will result in a reduction in her sex drive according to the report. on top of that, she also said he touched her inappropriately at times. the governor addressed it and made several statements that i want to fact check, as you said. first off, that he was upset about the lack of diversity in the protective services unit, and that's the security detail and so as a result he wanted a woman onboard, an additional woman onboard his protective detail and that's belied by the facts in the report. according to the report, it says the senior investigator for the new york state police and just to give people an idea of the role of the senior investigator and the state police is the person who makes things happen day to day. that's an important job. so while they might not have the title of a captain or lieutenant, there are key people within the state police and the senior investigator immediately after this trooper number 1 met governor cuomo along with another female trooper sent an email to trooper number 1 saying what did you say to him? seven question marks and made a comment that the governor wanted her on the detail tomorrow. that's a quote. on top of that, they changed the regulations for this trooper to join. she'd not had enough years on the job in order to be a part of the protective services unit and they bent the regulations for that. there were direct requests made from the executive chamber according to the report, and i just want to read something from the report specifically and just beg your indulgence here, andrea, because i want to pull it up. >> basically, they found, the independent investigators that the governor was not truthful in his statements that this was just purely a diverse hiring initiative. they found that the contemporaneous email sent by that senior investigator as well as testimony from that senior investigator indicated to them that this was all an attempt to get this specific state trooper added to his detail. the governor did not address statements that he made about her attire. he made statements that she should perhaps be wearing a dress or more vibrant colors. andrea, the purpose of someone on the protective detail is to look out for the governor's safety. they are armed and it is difficult. this is not the swanky bar in a james bond film. you cannot hide a gun easily wearing a dress so i don't understand yet governor would be making those comments and that's something obviously trooper number 1 took issue with and stated to investigators that was information thanks also corroborated in that report. so an important fact check there as it pertains to trooper number 1. this whole incident, andrea, has been cast as a bias report. knowing one of the investigators personally, andrea, i have never seen that person engage in any sort of bias along those lines. just a couple of different things that i'll raise there and send it back to you. >> well, stand by, tom. we'll go through more of this, but ron allen, the first woman, kathy hochul who will be the lieutenant governor will be the first woman governor of new york state and taking over in 14 days and by avoiding a near certain impeachment, he avoids a lifetime ban that was going to be immediate during the hearings. he was going to have to step aside during the hearings that were going to be imminent and that would be a lifetime ban on being able to run for future office. >> well, it is unclear if the impeachment process will stop and the hearing will go forward because of this potentially him running for office again and we haven't heard from the legislature about whether that's going to happen or not. y you're right. the lieutenant governor will take over and this is obviously an incredibly important time for not just new york state, but the entire country given the pandemic and given the fact that the covid numbers are rising again in many places here as well as anywhere else as we begin the school year for kids. it's an incredibly important time and cuomo said that that's one of the reasons that he's leaving because of the need for government to get on with the business of serving the people, but the bottom line, andrea is that there was just a mountain of evidence and a mountain of opposition of him continuing. there's no analyst that i've heard in recent days that saw any path for him to go forward. he had virtually no support in the legislature and no support among democrats and even president biden had called for him to resign. we can go back and forth about the details of the report, what he said, didn't say, so on and so forth, but the bottom line is that the fall from grace is incredible. when you think back watching some of the covid briefings that cuomo used to have where he was so in command, where he was so glib and so talkative and portraying himself the expert about covid and the strong leader in charge of this, and writing a best selling book about this whole thing and now a few months later he's a disgraced, fallen governor, and fallen in the biggest way and there is no one who supports him. we are dealing with the issue of the sexual harassment allegations that came against him, was there still the question about how he handled the whole nursing home issue regarding covid. there was the issue of him using covid tests in a preferential way for members of his family and for his staff. there were a litany of things that were insurmountable for the governor at this point. he had -- there was no one who supported him. just yesterday the leaders of the state legislature came out and said within weeks the timetable was weeks before this impeachment process was wrapped up. just a couple of days ago, the governor's top lieutenant, the woman by his side day in and day out, melissa derosso quit because she couldn't support the governor publicly anymore given this mountain of allegations and through it all, the women, the 11 women who were the center of this whole matter stood strong. there was a barrage of retaliation against them. some of which was brought up in the report by the attorney general and about the governor and they stood strong and made their case. this was a huge emotional issue here in new york state in the country for that matter, but the bottom line is that cuomo had no support. no one saw it his way. he talked about generational differences and how times had changed and how he slipped, quote, unquote in his dealings with the female trooper with other members of his entourage and his staff. this was not about slipping and generational matters. this was about a pattern of behavior that emerged in the reports by the attorney general and others about how cuomo conducted himself and it just became unacceptable and he crossed just too many lines and now he's gone. andrea? >> and susan del percio, let's follow up on the political fallout. you worked as an adviser to andrew cuomo and you've been very critical of his behaviors and his response to the report. what about the fallout because he would have had to step down if the impeachment hearings started under the rules of new york state. now we don't know if they'll proceed nonetheless try to revive his political career down the road and what is the outlook now? first, i'd like to go to his final press conference there as governor and say what a disgraceful way of conducting yourself out the door. he basically had his lawyers discredit the investigators, discredit the media and the accusers and he went on the air and talked down to people saying it's just who i am. i'm sorry. that is unbelievable behavior and shows that he really has no remorse. he had no other choice, but to move on with resignation. he had no allies anywhere so this is what he had to do. when i was first listening to his attorney i was, like, why is she bringing a legal argument to a political fight? and then it turned out he knew he couldn't win that political fight. as far as the assembly goes there was no way andrew cuomo would allow his legacy to be that of the impeached cuomo. let's not forget, eight months ago he was trying to be -- to break list father's record and get a fourth term and be the only person to get a fourth term as governor. so a lot has changed in a very quick period of time except the governor, i wouldn't put it past him to see if he could run down the road, but i think ron may be right that the assembly may go forward just so they can get something on the record. >> susan, i want to just clarify one thing because they're calling it a press conference. he did not have a press conference. he has not answered questions. there were no reporters there. he was just speaking from his script. as you pointed out, victim shaming and undercutting the allegations of all except for the trooper and trying to explain that one away. robert m